Once more unto the breach, dear friends…

So, my friends. I believe this is goodbye. Today, if luck is on my side, I will fly to Antarctica. It seems that we have a small window of opportunity after 12:30pm today, so if we make it, we will be on the 7th Continent by 6pm. Not that time matters much down there, as it is light for 24 hours in Summer.

I will be offline for the duration, at least until the 18th. If the weather has been anything like it is now, then it could well be a week later, as the fowl weather down there can halt all exits.. The wind can be no stronger than 30 knots for the plane to land, so we’d be stuck until the weather clears. Very scary when my ticket is basically non-refundable!

Once again, I want to thank-you all for your love and support this year. It has made my year magnificent and has helped me endure, even when I wanted to drop my bundle and just go home.

100km in Antarctica doesn’t seem so far now. It could turn into a disaster, or it could be my greatest triumph! I won’t know until I get started, but gee it all feels very exciting to be apart of it. There are some speedy runners heading south with me, so it will be fantastic to mix it up with them all.

I’d like you all to think about a couple of things while I’m gone. The obvious is that I’m doing my darndest to raise some money for charity.. I’m going to redirect you to this link, that tells of a fabulous competition we’re putting on this month.. Check it out and really consider giving just $10 to Facing Africa or UNICEF. You could win a week of happiness in Tuscany, Italy!!

Also, please tell a few of your friends! If you haven’t “Liked” us on Facebook, then click the link to the right of the page here. And if you’ve already “Liked” us, then on the Facebook.com/RunLikeCrazy page, please find the link “Suggest to Friends” on the left hand side, just below the RLC logo. Invite as many of your friends as possible to join the movement and help me bring this bundle of energy home in style, with as many people watching as possible.

As that network expands, so do the donations and so does the exposure we get from major sponsors and corporate donors. This will help boost the overall efforts of this adventure and for that, I will be eternally grateful!!

And if you’re a corporate, that would like to sponsor the RunLikeCrazy Marathon, then please find the email link for Rebecca Sherwill here.. We need a couple more sponsors to help and we promise plenty of exposure in the process!!

Thanks one and all for believing in me. It lifts my heart to know you are all out there. I will carry you with me across the ice and hold onto your faith in me any time I want to stop. I will leave you with a bit of classic Shakespeare as I depart. My father introduced me to Henry V when I was still very young and I’ve always loved this speech. It will drive me on as I battle my challenge one more time..

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’